This hero became the "father" of all characters hunting undead. Solomon Kane, the Winchester brothers, John Constantine and other popular heroes, are the “descendants” of a book character named Abraham Van Helsing. The biography of this hero for more than 100 years inspires writers and screenwriters. Meanwhile, this character had a real prototype.
Who is Abraham Van Helsing: biography with photos
In 1897, Bram Stoker published the novel Dracula. From the modern point of view, the work contained a lot of inaccuracies and plot “holes”, but at that time it was a unique composition that had no analogues.
In addition to Count Vlad Dracula, who instantly became a cult character, readers also liked the main opponent of the vampire - professor of occult and philosophical sciences Abraham Van Helsing.
The exact nationality of this character is unknown. According to his last name, he is Dutch, but the German accent gives him a native of Germany. Stoker himself did not specify where his brave vampire fighter came from.
It also does not indicate the exact age of the character, however, according to the description, it is clear that Abraham is a dark-haired man aged 50-60 years. The growth and body features of this hero are also not described in detail.
At the beginning of the novel, Abraham is in Amsterdam (this suggests that he is Dutch), but later arrives in England at the request of Seward. It is his knowledge in medicine, ethnography and the occult sciences that help the heroes understand what kind of enemy they will have to fight with.
Van Helsing - comic book hero
For the first time, after his triumphant debut in Stoker’s work, Abraham Van Helsing appeared on the pages of Marvel’s comics "Dracula's Tomb" in 1972.
In graphic novels, the image of Van Helsing has undergone changes. From an educated free-thinking philosopher of the late XIX century. he turned into an obsessed revenge professor of anthropology and a vampire hunter. Also, a tragic biography was invented for this character, explaining how he knew so much about the bloodsuckers.
The fact is that this vampire hunter previously had a wife, Elizabeth, who became a victim of the Children of Judah society that serves Dracula. Trying to avenge the death of his wife, Abraham first encounters vampires and only miraculously avoids death. Later, he studies his opponent and begins the hunt.
Van Helsing in novels by other authors
Since the 70s. interest in this hero is increasing. So, in 1975, Fred Saberhagen published the novel The Dracula Tape, in which, in addition to Dracula, his legendary opponent appeared.
In subsequent years, Abraham Van Helsing became the hero of such works as Dracula the Un-dead, Quincey Morris, Dracula's Diary, Fangland, etc.
In Japan, in honor of this hero, they called the popular manga Hellsing, on the basis of which the animated series of the same name was later shot.
Abraham Van Helsing: films with this hero
With the invention of the movie, Stoker's work was filmed among the first. Together with the immortal vampire, his main enemy appeared on the screens.
The debut of this hero on the screen can be considered a silent black-and-white film “Nosferatu. Symphony of horror. " Since the creators of the picture at that time could not buy the rights to the film adaptation from the heirs of Bram Stoker, they simply changed the names of the characters and made minor adjustments to the plot. Thus, Van Helsing first appeared on the screen under the name of Professor Bulwer.
In subsequent years, Abraham Van Helsing appeared in almost every movie or television series, if Dracula appeared in it. This character was played by the best actors in the world: Peter Cushing (TV series "Dracula"), Lawrence Olivier ("Dracula"), Anthony Hopkins ("Dracula Bram Stouker"), Peter Fonda ("Nadia"), Christopher Plummer ("Dracula 2000") , David Warner (The Thunder Horrors), Rutger Hauer (Dracula 3D), David Suchet (Dracula), and Hugh Jackman (Van Helsing).
Arminius Wambury - the prototype of Van Helsing
According to the generally accepted opinion, the prototype of the first vampire fighter was a close friend of Bram Stoker - a Hungarian scientist of Jewish origin Arminius Vamberi.
This amazing person for his time was not only a famous linguist, but also a traveler, as well as a British spy.
Born in a poor family, the boy himself studied several foreign languages ​​in order to get the opportunity to enter the best European universities.
At the age of twenty, Wambury goes to Istanbul, where he has been teaching European languages ​​for many years. In parallel, he translates many Turkish books into Hungarian, thereby gaining the glory of the best orientalist in Europe.
The army was not even thirty when he compiled and published a Turkish-German dictionary, which was a huge success.
After thirty, Wambury traveled incognito in many countries of Central Asia. In parallel, he performed tasks of British intelligence.
His writings on history and ethnography were later used by Stoker as a source of information when writing Dracula.
Jerzy Helving - another prototype of Van Helsing
Bram Stoker himself never admitted who became the prototype of his main vampire fighter. And although most consider Arminia Wambury as such, the Pole Adam Wenglowski has a different opinion.
In his book Bardzo polska historia wszystkiego, published in 2015, he quite reasonably put forward the theory that the Polish scientist Jerzy Helving was the prototype of Van Helsing.
This Pole lived in the XVII-XVIII centuries. and became famous not only as a wonderful priest, but also as a botanist scientist. Among his many works on botany, astronomy, literature and arithmetic, ethnographic monographs are not the last.
In 1722, Helving published a study on vampires. Moreover, in the work of this Polish pastor, the most common methods of destroying the undead are mentioned: cutting off the head, using light and silver weapons.
Another version of the Van Helsing prototype
Mentioning all kinds of scientists whose work Stoker studied while working on his landmark novel, one should not forget about the likelihood that the writer portrayed himself in the image of a brilliant vampire wrestler.
In favor of this version, says the name of the character, because "Bram" is an abbreviation for Abraham. In addition, the writer’s appearance is painfully similar to the appearance of Van Helsing described in the novel.
Today it will not be possible to find out exactly who became the prototype of a character named Abraham Van Helsing. The growing interest in this person in recent years is simply stunning. And in connection with this, more and more theories arise annually about who Stoker “wrote off” his character from. Which of them is true - readers and viewers are unlikely to recognize, but this will not affect their love for this hero.